Can Wikitree set parameters automatically for profiles who are born a long time ago to be public?

Question

I was looking through my last name of Hughey for profiles that are confirmed with DNA and saw some that are "private" and they were born in 1910. That is not fair or right. Persons can't possibly be living, right? What is the secret? Honor Code should be important here. How do contributors get away with this?? Doesn't this cause duplicate profiles to be created since we cannot see the profiles??

Comments

A person born in 1910 could (maybe not so) easily still be alive.

He/she wouldn't even be in the Top 100 list of oldest currently living people!

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True. Thanks. I just wonder how many times I may have created a new profile because someone else has the same one under "private."

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Debbie, when you have a question about the possibility of a private profile being the same as a person you are planning to add, you can write to the profile manager and ask him/her to share enough information for you to determine whether it is the same person.

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I understand that, but the only thing similar is the last name. That's kinda far-fetched...

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You get to make the executive decision of the likelihood of the profiles being a match - add yours if you think it's far fetched or contact the manager if you think it's realistically possible.  When you signed the honor code, you got permission to put on your big girl pants!

Answer 1

Debbie, I don't think anyone is "getting away with" anything, or even trying to.  A rule about requiring profiles to be open after a certain period of time was very recently implemented.  I believe it applies to people who died over 100 years ago or were born over 150 years ago, provided that they do not have any children currently living, but I may not have that quite right.  I'm sure that not all managers - even the active ones - are aware of this requirement.

When you come across a private (or public) profile that meets the criteria for being required to be open, you can file an "open profile request" and I believe those are acted upon very quickly.

Comments

You are correct Gaile.  All profiles of people born 150 years ago or died 100 years ago should be open.  Anything else can be private.

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Ok. That is good to know. The first one of 4 that I saw was born in 1910. I guess it fall ok in the guidelines, but I still dont get it since it would be too easy to make a duplicate and that causes a mess. Do people ever make the private profiles unprivate later on or forget about it??

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If the person becomes or is non-active, Debbie, you can request that the profile be opened so you can adopt it or merge your duplicate profile with it.

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I wish. The profile is "private" so I can't see anything to know to request anything...

Answer 2

A person born in 1910 could most definitely have living children which is why members may want to keep this profile private.  It may be his/her parent and they may wish stricter privacy.

Comments

Ok. I get it. It just causes people to possibly create a duplicate profile, which will cause a mess later on...

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This is true, Debbie and can't be completely avoided.  I spent most of today merging duplicate profiles that I created when I first came here because a now non-active member had made all of her profiles red private.  Plus she had many of those profiles not connected to the family they belonged to.  Frustrating-Yes!

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My father was born in 1892 and has two living children. Easy.

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Tom, this is nuts, but your comment just reminded me of a question that my father (an incorrigible jokester) loved to ask people:   "Did your father have any children?"

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LOL! Tom and Gaile, Your comments crack me up!! Who was buried in Grant's tomb? When was the War of 1812??  LOL.

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Emma, thanks for "getting me." I've had problems with someone purposely privatizing profiles and they aren't dead 100 years. I even saw messages on their profile about her "problem" of not wanting profiles open for everyone.  So it IS a problem sometimes with people PURPOSELY hiding profiles!!

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Here's one: My mother's father was born in 1868 and she's still living. (Everyone in the line had children later in life.) He was born almost 150 years ago and his profile is not private, but it shows how generations can be stretched out with privacy issues still possible.  Oh, sorry, not a joke, if you were looking for one! :)

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That is an awesome example Edie!  I think there should be an option for these profiles to be private since there are living children.